Ties That Bind Us (EBOOK PUBLISHED)

Chapter 3

Ava

"You're unbelievable, you know that?" Bella barked from the pool chair next to me. I ignored her, continuing to flip through some trashy gossip magazine. We'd already been out here lying by the pool for an hour, and I had been listening to her rant the entire time. She wanted details about last night but I wasn't about to give in so easily. I was nursing an earth-shattering headache and trying to make sense of all that had gone on last night in my own mind. The last thing I wanted to do was delve into all the details with Bella right now so she could direct and overanalyze the whole thing like she usually did.

"Are you even listening to me?" Bella shrieked, louder this time and leaning towards me.

"I don't know what you're talking about Bells." I smiled mischievously at her, never taking my eyes off of my magazine. I knew exactly where she was going with this but I enjoyed irritating her.

I had been giving her excuses all morning. Thankfully, she had been the only one woken up by me sneaking back into the house early this morning. I could only imagine what my father would have said if he caught me tiptoeing up to my room, dress wrinkled and heels in hand, at 5AM. It certainly wouldn't have been pretty and he definitely wouldn't have let me off as easily as Bella did. I had staved Bella off by promising to tell her all the juicy details later on if only she'd let me get some rest. That lasted briefly. She was at my door at 9AM ready to go out to the pool. I begrudgingly joined her, but had remained tight-lipped on the whole thing so far.

Truth be told, I had spent a lot of time in bed last night, but none of it sleeping. Romeo, as he called himself, was more than I ever expected. When I ducked out on Rob, I never intended to meet up with the dark and mysterious man from earlier in the night, but lucky for me, I did. On impulse, I left the bar with him and went to a hotel, something incredibly uncharacteristic, and incredibly irresponsible, of me. I wasn't myself last night though, I was Juliette. And Juliette was definitely the kind of person to throw caution to the wind and go back to a hotel with a stranger, letting him have his way with her all night.

The guy was even more of a masterpiece up close. A pair of piercing, dark eyes. Dark brown hair just long enough that I could hold onto during our escapades, big strong hands that held me in every position imaginable until the sun nearly came up. Just thinking about his deep husky voice gave me chills. It was almost too good to be true. If I didn't have his possessive marks on my body and the deep soreness in my legs, I would have almost thought I dreamt the entire thing. I couldn't exactly tell Bella all of that though. She was my older sister, after all, and even though I trusted her with the world, I couldn't imagine what she would think of me.

It couldn't be any worse than what I thought of myself though. I kept floating somewhere between being ashamed at what I had done and relishing in every detail replaying in my mind.

Bad decisions were kind of my calling card recently, but last night had taken it to an extreme that I was even shocked by. I knew better than to run off with a guy like that without telling a single soul, and yet I had done it anyway. What if he was a serial killer? What if he kidnapped me and held me for ransom? I didn't even know the guy's name. What if he had a girlfriend? Or a disease? Jesus, what had I been thinking? There were a million things that could have gone wrong, and it's a damn miracle that nothing did. Not to mention, the second he gave me the time of day, it was like I threw every moral I had right out the window. I left my date with another man, although justified, and practically jumped into this guy's bed. Better yet, I had let him use me like some glorified, high price hooker. He took me to a hotel for Christ Sake, and if that hadn't been enough of a red flag for me, maybe, just maybe, the gun he had strapped to his ankle should have. He was dangerous to me in more ways than one, but never for one second did I feel threatened or afraid of him. He was attentive and gentle when I needed him to be, and underneath that tough tattooed exterior, I felt an insane connection with him. the guy was bad news, exactly the opposite of who I should be associating with right now and yet, if I had been given the chance, I would relive last night a thousand times.